UN System Procurement Statistics Report - 2013

The 2013 Annual Statistical Report on United Nations Procurement (ASR) analyzes procurement from developing countries and countries with economies in transition, and examines the performance of the United Nations system in increasing opportunities for vendors in developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

In the context of the continuous attention to sustainability within the UN system, the information conveyed by the ASR has also been supplemented by sustainable procurement indicators. This year a revised set of questions was developed for the participating UN organizations, which provided a better understanding of the UN system performance in terms of sustainable procurement implementation. The reporting framework follows sustainability integration throughout the procurement process and also puts focus on specific areas within sustainable procurement.

In addition, the 2013 ASR looks at procurement by UN organizations from vendors that support the United Nations Global Compact. This section of the report measures procurement by the UN system from companies that embrace universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Organizations of the UN system give no preferential treatment to Global Compact signatories, but strongly encourage them to subscribe to the Global Compact and support its underpinning principles.

Since 2008, the ASR has featured a Thematic Supplement that focuses on a current topic in procurement. This year, the supplement provides an overview of innovation in public procurement, including case studies and contributions from practitioners and experts globally. In view of the renewed emphasis on sustainability and innovation in development operations, this supplement is a timely reminder of the importance of the procurement function in this regard.

This publication has been produced by UNOPS on behalf of the organizations of the UN system. UNOPS is grateful to the UN organizations for their continuous support and contributions that make the publication possible. UNOPS hopes that this report provides useful information on the broad spectrum of procurement by the UN system. UNOPS continually strives to improve and refine the report to better serve expectations and objectives of government stakeholders, donors, the business community and UN organizations.

In previous years, the ASR included statistical data on the personnel components for the operational activities within the UN organizations (in 2012, six UN organizations provided personnel data). From this year onwards, this statistical data will no longer be reported through the ASR, but is available through the Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) of the United Nations.